Although 84 percent of Americans say the middle class will have to make financial sacrifices to
reduce the federal budget deficit, more than three quarters of them oppose raising income taxes
on the middle class or limiting the growth of Social Security and Medicare, according to a
Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Looking at ways to reduce the deficit, 49 percent of voters want all budget reductions
through spending cuts, while 4 percent want it done only through tax hikes, and 42 percent favor
a combination of the two, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

If a combination of the two are to be done to reduce the deficit, 29 percent want an equal
amount in spending cuts and tax increases; 52 percent favor more spending cuts and 12 percent
want a larger amount in tax increases.

"Social Security and Medicare are the two largest domestic items in the federal budget,
and between them now make up more than a third of federal spending. Under current law, these
programs will gobble up an even larger percentage of the budgets in coming years," said Peter A.
Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"Given those numbers, it's clear that those who want serious deficit reduction have their
work cut out for them in convincing the public, which seems adamantly opposed to cutting the
programs with the largest budgets.

"Moreover, although majorities favor increasing taxes on those who earn $250,000 or
more, they are opposed to hiking them on the middle class, which would raise much, much more
money since there are so many more people who are middle class."

Within the 84 percent who think the middle class will have to sacrifice, 92 percent of
Republicans, 78 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of independent voters feel that way. But
on the question of raising taxes on the middle class, 83 percent of Republicans, 81 percent of
independent voters and 75 percent of Democrats are opposed.

The relative lack of a partisan gap also is evident in limiting the growth of Social Security
and Medicare. On Social Security, 73 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats and 75
percent of independent voters are opposed. On Medicare, 75 percent of Republicans, 80 percent
of Democrats and 74 percent of independents are opposed.

Women are generally more opposed to limiting either program than are men and those
with more education and higher incomes are slightly more in favor of such restrictions on growth.

Not surprisingly, 57 percent of Republicans want only spending cuts in a deficit reduction
plan, compared to 54 percent of independents and 39 percent of Democrats. Conversely, 6
percent of Democrats, 3 percent of Republicans and 2 percent of independent favor the taxes
only option.

From March 16 - 21, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,907 registered voters nationwide
with a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public
opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and the
nation as a public service and for research.
For more data or RSS feed- http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, call (203) 582-5201, or
follow us on Twitter.

48. Do you believe middle-class Americans will or will not have to make
financial sacrifices to decrease the federal budget deficit?

55. (If combination q54) Do you think that tax increases and spending cuts
should be equal, or that there should be more spending cuts than tax increases,
or that there should be more tax increases than spending cuts?